Early Life: Evolution on the PreCambrian Earth

by Margulis, Lynn; Dolan, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780763714635
• ISBN10: 0763714631
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-01-13
• Publisher: Jones & Bartlett Learning

Summary

This new edition offers an informative and compelling analysis of microbial evolution, including new discoveries from the past two decades.

Author Biography

Lynn Margulis, Ph.D., recipient of a National Medal of Science, is Distinguished University Professor in the Geosciences Department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst Michael F. Dolan, Ph.D., is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Table of Contents

List of Figures	ix
List of Tables	xv
Foreword	xvii
Antonio Lazcano
Preface to the First Edition	xxi
Preface to the Second Edition	xxiii
Evolution and Cells	1	(24)
Two Kinds of Life	4	(4)
Kingdoms of Organisms	8	(3)
Living Clues to the Past	11	(6)
Reconstructing the Ancient World	17	(8)
Life without Oxygen	25	(32)
The Beginning of Life	28	(7)
The First Metabolism	35	(6)
Electron-Transport Chains and Porphyrin Rings	41	(5)
Photoautotrophy	46	(3)
New Dangers	49	(2)
First Sex	51	(2)
Ecology without Oxygen	53	(4)
Life with Oxygen	57	(20)
The First Oxygen Producers	59	(4)
The Transformation of the Atmosphere	63	(3)
Stromatolites	66	(3)
Learning to Breathe	69	(4)
A Modern Environment	73	(4)
A New Kind of Cell	77	(32)
The First Eukaryotes	79	(2)
Biological Partnerships	81	(2)
The Nucleus	83	(2)
Eukaryotes without Mitochondria	85	(4)
Undulipodia	89	(7)
Movement within Cells	96	(2)
Mitochondria	98	(5)
Plastids	103	(6)
The Evolution of Sex	109	(20)
Chromosomes and Mitosis	111	(5)
The Mitotic Spindle	116	(3)
Meiosis	119	(3)
The Evolution of Meiosis	122	(7)
The Modern Era	129	(18)
Clones, Colonies, and Differentiation	131	(4)
Cells in Multicellular Organisms	135	(4)
``Everywhereness of Life''	139	(8)
Glossary	147	(12)
Index	159